If you’re trying to work out how many drops of essential oil you can expect to get out of your bottle the general rule of thumb is:
20 drops per ml of oil.
This is because 1 drop of oil typically contains 0.05 ml of oil. Results will vary slightly of course due to a number of reasons, so don’t take this is a hard fact.
I did actually test this with a 2 ml bottle of oil. I got 39 drops out, so taking into account a little bit being stuck to the inside of the bottle I think this proves very accurate.
So, if you’re trying to find out how many drops of essential oil in a 10 ml bottle for example – the answer is 200 drops.
Even though the math is easy on this one, to make it visually easy to look up how many drops are in your bottles here is a handy table:
Number of Drops per ml of Essential Oil Table
| ml of Oil | # of Drops |
|---|---|
| 1 | 20 |
| 2 | 40 |
| 3 | 60 |
| 4 | 80 |
| 5 | 100 |
| 10 | 200 |
| 20 | 400 |
Why Didn’t I Get That Many Drops out of My Bottle?
As I said above, this is just a general guideline. There are a number of factors that will affect how many drops of oil you get out of a bottle, namely:
Size of hole – As far as I can tell there is no regulation around how large the hole needs to be on a bottle.
So, the larger the hole the larger the drops will be. Meaning you’ll get fewer drops out of the bottle. You’re getting the same amount of oil overall though so don’t worry.
Thickness of oil – Not all oils are the same thickness or have the same viscosity. Vetiver, patchouli, and sandalwood for example are much thicker than orange and lemon.
Oils that are thin in viscosity will produce smaller drops. This means you can expect more drops from a thin oil on average than a thick oil.
Manufacturer variance – Let’s not forget some of the variances that come with different manufacture processes, brands, etc.
The style and shape of the bottles, type, and size of the hole as mentioned, and the exact amount in the bottle can all make a slight difference to the total number of drops.
If you want to know how many drops of essential oil to use in your diffuser check this post.
I’m a MA, (CMT) Certified Massage Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), and Reiki Master — I’m a licensed massage therapist with over 10 years of experience in the industry.